Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lord Otaku 12-20-07, 01:40 PM	I've been looking over the Bloodlines offered in Unearthed Arcana, and can't help but feel that they are not worth the cost to purchase (namely lack of Skill Points, improved Saves, and Hit Dice). To me this seems especially true when they are compared to Templates and Races with ECL penalties, which usually gain a lot more for the same price. The only Bloodline I would ever consider is the Major Titan Bloodline due to it's "Use oversized weapon (Ex)" ability at 12th Level. What are your views on this? Am I missing something? If you have made Bloodlines work in your campaign, how did you go about doing so?
tenguroEd 12-20-07, 01:49 PM	I had a couple characters(pys. warrior w/ dragon bloodline, and a ranger w/ fey bloodline) The dragon bloodline I liked, the fey not so much, the ranger was the quikest character I had to die. To me they each have their good and bad points, some are better then others, all you have to do is choose the right one for your character build, imo.
Krusk 12-20-07, 01:50 PM	I find that they are useful ifyou take one of the minor ones ith good abilities, and you are a class like fighter or barbarian. loose out on one of your dead levels, BAB saves increase and minor skill points for feats skill boosts and ability improvements.
LoneFlame 12-20-07, 02:04 PM	It really does depend on what you are, and what you're trying to make. Any Caster is at a big disadvantage, as are anything with low hit dice. Since there are fairly clear rules for making bloodlines, we usually just make out own(subject to DM approval).
JaronK 12-20-07, 05:10 PM	Bloodlines can be incredibly powerful if you take advantage of the fact that each bloodline level increases your class level in ALL of your classes for ALL abilities related to class level. The Ubermount, found near the end of the Supermount thread in the Theoretical Optimization board, uses this principle to create a 20th level character with a mount that combines all the advantages of a 50th level Druid mount and a 40th level Paladin mount. Nasty little dragon. Other sample characters, all with a Major Bloodline: Binder 1/Warlock 13/Hellfire Warlock 3- The Hellfire Warlock adds +2d6 damage per class level to eldritch blast damage, yehaw. Bloodlines let you go beyond the normal three level limit of the class, taking you from +6d6 to +12d6. X7/Chameleon 10: Chameleon caster level is 2X Chameleon level. Each bloodline level adds 1 to your chameleon level, and seperately adds one to caster level, so now your caster level as a chameleon goes from a max of 20 to a max of 29. Ranger 1/Fighter 1/Lion Totem Barbarian 1/Hexblade 1/Swashbuckler 1/Duskblade 1/Rokugan Ninja 1/Scarlet Corsair 1/OA Samurai 1/Unarmed Varient Swordsage 1/Crusader 1/Warblade 1/Master of Nine 5: Your initiator level is .5 per class level in non associated classes, 1 per class level in associated classes. Because your class level in all those one level dip classes now counts as 4 due to the Major Bloodline for abilities based on class level (which IL is), you get +18 to IL before taking any levels in initiator classes. Thus, before entering Master of Nine, you have an IL of 26 in Warblade, Swordsage, and Crusader. Also, you have nearly full BAB and a bunch of random abilities, not to mention redonkulous saves. Handy for getting all 9th level manuevers. Your final IL for whatever base class you chose to advance Master of Nine with is 35, which is pretty awesome when using Burning Blade and certain other manuevers. So yeah, there are ways to make Bloodlines awesome. JaronK